The helicopter transport takes trauma patients to Enloe Medical Center and moves patients from local hospitals to medical facilities in other areas.

As important as raising funds for FlightCare is, the other purpose of the letter drive is to build a relationship with nursing and pre-nursing students from Chico State University and Butte College, said Jolene Francis, director of advancement for the Enloe Foundation.

The foundation reached out to both school's nursing programs.

Although the campaign asks letter recipients to donate to FlightCare, each letter also has options to help in other branches of the hospital. Donors can choose where they want their money to go.

"FlightCare has been the main focus of fundraising lately," Francis said.

The current helicopter is about 12 years old and due for retirement, she said. A new EC-130 ECO-Star helicopter has already been ordered at a cost of $3.5 million. That money doesn't come out of hospital operational costs; it's covered by the sale of the current aircraft and by the foundation.

Enloe FlightCare will be the first program in the world to use the EC-130 model as a medical transport.

The original FlightCare helicopter had the tail number, NT911, after N.T. Enloe, the founder of the hospital and the emergency phone number. After a crash that killed pilot Ron Jones in Butte Meadows, the hospital's aircraft was designated N922RJ, the "N" is required by the FAA, "922" stands for Sept. 22, 2001, the date of the crash, and "RJ" stands for Ron Jones. The new aircraft will retain the tail number N922RJ.

It's a reminder not only of the memory of the pilot, but to remain vigilant and remember safety precautions at all times, Francis said.

Mike Wiltermood, the hospital CEO, said Enloe has one of only 2 Level II flight care programs in the north state. The program has a radius of about 75 miles, but medical patients are transported as far as the Bay Area.

"We're just really pleased that the students are spending their Friday night with us, doing this," he said.

Letter writers at the event also had a chance to win raffle prizes for gift cards to local businesses and vouchers to pay for expensive nursing classes.

Noelle Jahn, Lyndsey Wanner, and Faren Sanford went to several nursing and pre-nursing classes to recruit students for the fundraiser.

"The Enloe Foundation asked us to be a part of it," Wanner said. "We're excited to do this because they let us do our clinicals here, and we're glad to give back."

As officers of the university's branch of the California Nursing Students Association, the students publicized the event on each of the nursing program's Facebook pages.

The nursing program has a different Facebook page for whichever year in the program the student is in, Sanford said.

Sanford and Jahn have had first-hand experience with FlightCare.

"We had a patient who had to be transported from Oroville," Sanford said.

The two students were doing clinical training, where they get hands-on experience working in real health care facilities, and had the chance to prepare the patient for helicopter transport.

"It ended up being a life-saving flight," Jahn said.

Jahn said her goal is to be a flight nurse.

She likes that it takes a high-level of care to be a flight nurse.

"Not just any care will do," she said. "You are the person most responsible for that patient at that time."

Although the letters have been sent, anyone who wishes to donate time or money to FlightCare or the hospital can call the Enloe Foundation at 332-4550 or visit www.enloe.org/giving_and_volunteering.